Hong Kong’s Lam Takes Blame for ‘Entire Unrest’ Rocking City
Chinese officials said they were braced for more unrest on the Oct. 1 holiday.
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam took blame for the “entire unrest” rocking the Asian financial center, as the government sought to reduce tensions ahead of another wave of protests.
The city’s embattled chief executive faced a skeptical crowd Thursday at her first town-hall style dialogue since historic demonstrations erupted in June over her efforts to pass legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China. She fielded questions from some 130 citizens for more than two hours as protesters gathered outside.
“Everyone is very heart-broken, upset or even angry, the entire unrest is caused by the government’s work in amending the extradition law,” Lam told the crowd gathered in a sport arena in the city’s Wan Chai area. “The government is shouldering the biggest responsibility for finding a way out.”
The event came as Hong Kong braced for a pair of fraught dates expected to bring government critics back into the streets: Saturday marks five years since the Occupy Movement started, while the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 70th anniversary Tuesday. Hong Kong police approved an application for a rally Saturday by the group that organized some of the largest marches since the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.
The organizer of another march Sunday said it would go ahead without police approval, raising the prospect of more violent clashes between cops and demonstrators. In recent weeks, even largely peaceful gatherings have descended into chaos as smaller groups of hard-core protesters tossed petrol bombs at police.
Chinese officials said they were braced for more unrest on the Oct. 1 holiday. In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to use the occasion to show off the country’s -- as well as the party’s -- strength, with a grand military parade.
“We hope that day in Hong Kong will be joyful and peaceful, but as far we know the opposition camp and some radical members have decided to make protests and violent clashes on that day, which have exposed their nature -- and it’s anti-China and wanting to mess up Hong Kong,” Song Ruan, a senior Chinese diplomat in the city, told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday.
Bottom Line
As Lam spoke at the event on Thursday, hundreds of protesters who had earlier attempted to form a human chain around the venue remained outside chanting “five demands, not one less.” Although Lam has withdrawn the bill that sparked the unrest, she continues to refuse demonstrators’ other demands, including an independent commission of inquiry into the unrest, amnesty for charged protesters, and restarting the process of allowing direct elections for her successors.
Twenty-six out of the 30 members of the public who asked questions urged Lam to meet protesters’ demands, with some asking for her resignation, along with that of Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng and Police Commissioner Stephen Lo. Several asked why Lam hadn’t yet agreed to an inquiry into what protesters see as aggressive police tactics. Three in a row questioned whether officers had acted professionally.
“We want to make it clear there is a bottom line. You have to take the consequences after breaking the law,” Lam said at the forum. “That’s why we say we can’t accept some of the five demands.” Lam said she was “very worried every day” about the possibility of a casualty.
Hong Kong’s protesters hope to use the celebrations of the start of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1, 1949, to demonstrate against China’s grip over their city. The local government canceled a fireworks display amid the threat of disruptions.
One of the key organizers of recent demonstrations, the Civil Human Rights Front, is planning rallies on the Tuesday holiday, as well as Saturday, the anniversary of 2014’s Occupy protests -- the city’s last big pro-democracy uprising.
In the days leading up to the forum, Lam seemed prepared for anger.
“No doubt, I will receive some harsh criticism. But I also hope to receive constructive suggestions to help this government meet the public’s expectations for a more inclusive and fairer Hong Kong,” she wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
--With assistance from Aaron Mc Nicholas, Fion Li and Iain Marlow.
To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net;Jinshan Hong in Hong Kong at jhong214@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh
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